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February 3, 2009

The Heights Is Burning

heights-blaze-0209.jpgThis is totally unscientific, but doesn't it seem like Brooklyn Heights has more than its fair share of fires? The Brooklyn Heights Blog reported on a fire that happened last weekend at the dry cleaners at 132 Montague Street. In January, 67 Cranberry went up in flames, preceded by Gristedes in 2008. Then there's the 135 Joralemon blaze four years ago. Is it just the old housing stock? GMAP




Posted by Brownstoner at 10:45 AM | Comments (19)
Categories: Brooklyn Heights, Quality of Life

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Comments

Certainly more than its fair share of flamers.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at February 3, 2009 10:46 AM

Cranberry St. was probably the contractors fault (left something running, improper ventilation, etc).

Montague St. was probably just bad luck.

Gristedes? The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that one is suspect.

Joralemon? Old building... but then again, the conspiracy theorist in me....

Posted by: christopher at February 3, 2009 11:00 AM

Or is it just insurance fraud? BH certainly has its share of savvy hedge fund sharks and derivatives scam artists.

Posted by: iz at February 3, 2009 11:03 AM

I agree with Christopher except for Joralemon. I saw that dude the morning after that fire and it broke my heart. He looked like his baby had died. Very sad. That fire was due to his neglect, but he had lost his ability to deal with that house...

Posted by: Ringo at February 3, 2009 11:05 AM

it's probably just people hanging their bonnets and corsets on all those old gaslight fixtures.

*r*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at February 3, 2009 11:17 AM

In all honesty, I'm kind of surprised there aren't more fires all over Brooklyn. The houses are generally quite old, and you know the wiring in a lot of them is probably not so good.

Posted by: cwbuecheler at February 3, 2009 11:19 AM

We always had a less politically correct term for the "conspiracy theory" where I grew up.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at February 3, 2009 11:19 AM

Four fires in four years? Shocking.

Posted by: buttermilk channel at February 3, 2009 11:23 AM

DIBS,
Was the term arson? Insurance fraud?

I was trying to be polite with my "conspiracy theory" statement.

Posted by: christopher at February 3, 2009 11:25 AM

No, christopher. It would be something that PropJoe would say.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at February 3, 2009 11:32 AM

Rob, you're an ass for posting that. And an even bigger ass for making me laugh when I read it!

Posted by: Biff Champion at February 3, 2009 11:33 AM

How about we not write scenarios and come up with conspiracy theories? Crown heights had a real arson problem- BH does not. these fires had different causes and it just happened to be clustering over a relatively short period of time- but c'mon.

Posted by: bxgrl at February 3, 2009 11:34 AM

the type of lightning DIBS is referring to works when can insure prop for maore than market value. I doubt that holds true today.

Posted by: Petebklyn at February 3, 2009 11:53 AM

DIBS,
PropJoe, ha ha, brilliant!

Posted by: christopher at February 3, 2009 12:15 PM

Maybe it's candles from Martha Stewart types, crack addicts, etc.

Posted by: mopar at February 3, 2009 12:24 PM

I know the term you're referring to and just googled it. There are a whole lot of politically incorrect folks still out there using it.

Posted by: rh at February 3, 2009 1:39 PM

They had been working on 67 Cranberry for quite a while - at least all through the summer. It appeared from walk-bys that it was completely gutted - does anybody know what caused the fire?

Interesting that it backs up almost directly to the neighborhood firehouse.

A lot of the townhouses in the neighborhood were cut up into smaller apartments dating back to the 20s on and a lot of the workmanship that went into that was slipshod...and now it's old and slipshod. And probably dangerous.

I moved into a townhouse in the Heights about ten years ago and found the electrical systems at least 50 years out of date - it cost a fortune to update. And because these houses were mostly built in the 1850s, the walls are not thick enough to accommodate much in the way of infrastructure.

Meanwhile, does anybody know the plans for the retail space at the corner of Hicks and Cranberry? They seem to be doing a very nice job.

Posted by: Chrisintheheights at February 3, 2009 1:55 PM

Three retired New Yorkers are sitting poolside at a Miami retirement home. The first guy says "You know, I had a great dry cleaning business in Queens. But I had a fire and I was forced to retire. Such a tragedy". The second guy says "Me too. I had a little pizzaria in Brooklyn - one night I get a call it was burning up. We couldn't save nothing! I had to sell the business and move." The third guy says "So sad I had a video store in Staten Island. But we had a flood - everything was destroyed. I retired after that too".

The first two guys turn to the third guy and ask "Tell me - how do you make a flood?"

Posted by: Stonergut at February 3, 2009 2:02 PM

It's going to be residential. (Like other nearby buildings, the storefront window needs to stay for landmark reasons even if the use is converted from commercial to residential.)

Posted by: NorthHeights at February 3, 2009 2:03 PM

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